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Plastic-man, really? He was big twice for about 7.5 minutes each time, once was in the '40s and the other was in the '80s.

My grandmother can pick out Superman, she had the first issue (her mother threw it away while she was at camp - classic!), and probably Batman and Spider-man, but no way she'll be able to ID the Flash or any of those other costumed crimefighters. And here's the thing, it's not important who your grammy can identify with, she's not a target audience on this. It's parents and kids for the casual consumers and tweens to 30-somethings for the hardcore collectors. If I went to my 30-year-old sister (who is totally disinterested in superheroes) with pictures of all the characters mentioned here, I'm confident she could name:
Spider-man
Batman
Superman
Wonder Woman
Robin
Wolverine
Captain America
Fantastic Four

And that's the key, you can't say to them "which one is Green Lantern" because obviously they can say "oh, it's the green guy with the picture of a LANTERN ON HIS CHEST!!!", it's about recognizability of character, where that guy stands in popular culture and how likely that recognition will be to the potential consumer.

Yes, Plastic man. Everyone knows Plastic Man. Besides, when was the last time Thor was 'big.' Or Namor or even Captain America for that matter; aside from being recognizable for the iconic imagery he presents, I doubt you could find many non-comic readers who have even a vague inkling of what his story is or anything else about him other than what they can imagine based on his costume.

Aside from that...looks like you've completely missed my point. Your 30 year old sister is hardly the target audience here either, and yet you still figured it was worth mentioning; seems like we're not far off the same wavelength.
I'm confident that no one I know who wasn't at least slightly exposed to comics or Superheroes as cartoons anytime in the last twenty years would be able to recognize even the Fantastic 4 outside of obvious visual association before the movie came out (even then, I'm betting most would've picked them out as 'Rocky-guy' and 'Fire-guy' or 'Torcher' and 'Stretchy-Guy.' The giant number 4 on the chest would certainly help a lot more in naming the group as a whole than GL's lantern shaped chest emblem.) Either way, as I see it there are still far more recognizable individual DC heroes than individual Marvel heroes as far as the general public is concerned. Having had more recent films in theaters helps, but even more DC characters have had better recent exposure right there on basic cable. In fact, I think it's their existence as part of the cultural vernacular in spite of the very lack of there having ever been a solo Green Lantern, or Flash, or Aquaman movie that proves exactly how recognizable they are.

I can pretty much guarantee you none of my grandparents know or would remember Plastic Man, my dad wouldn't know him, my sister probably not, my niece, cousins, aunts, uncles, none of them. There's a SLIGHT chance my mom would but she's been tuned into that sort of thing better than most for my whole live, and even there I doubt it. Hell, I doubt if I showed them a picture of PM not stretching they wouldn't even know he's a superhero - just a guy in a bad red costume wearing lame sunglasses.

My sister *IS* a target audience because she has a child who is old enough to buy these toys for, toys like this are marketed to parents almost as much as kids.

As for recognizable DC superheroes beyond Bats & Supes in or near that tier, you say there are some but you haven't listed any.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Just found Black Canary/Joker/ Bats 3-pack on my lunch-break at Target. Didn't expect to find them so soon.

yer killin your fellow SoCal JLU collectors here with all your finds! i haven't found any of the new 3 packs and for the new singles, i've only seen funky stripes supes and flash w. yellow lightning bolt. i have a feeling that i'll get shayera/ray/GL from SDCC before i get any of the new ones.